Mothers’ experiences of racism showed up in their children’s bodies, with altered patterns of aging – though scientists cautioned they aren’t sure if their findings will translate into future health problems for the kids. Two Colorado researchers looked at 205 pairs of mothers and children from non-white ethnic groups living in Massachusetts, in cooperation with scientists elsewhere. When mothers reported they’d experienced more types of racial discrimination, such as mistreatment at work or when looking for housing, than their chronological ages of between 3 and 7.
Children of mothers who didn’t report discrimination had about the expected biological age. (The study didn’t quantify how distressing the mothers found the discrimination.) As people age, the way DNA expresses itself changes predictably, giving each person a biological age that might not be the same as the number of years they’ve lived.
A sector of the anti-aging industry has keyed into this phenomenon with products that promise to reduce someone’s biological age, theoretically holding off both visible aging and diseases associated with late life, such as dementia and most cancers. Prior studies have found an association between accelerated biological aging and health problems in adults, and established that adverse conditions in utero are linked to faster aging in adulthood, said Dr. Zachary Laubach, a research associate in evolutionary biology at University of Colorado Boulder and one of the r.
